Nuhu Ribadu is unprincipled and has no shame!

Nuhu Ribadu is unprincipled and has no shame!

Couple of days ago the erstwhile chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) boss, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, dumped the All Progressives Congress [APC] and joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Ribadu’s exit from APC was surprising to many who had viwed him as a man with principles and untainted character. Moreover, Ribadu was the presidential candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), which is the mothership of APC,  in 2011.

Ribadu’s shameful defection to the Peoples Democratic Party epitomizes the unprincipled character of Nigerian politicians, whose actions are whimsically guided by greed and selfish interests.

Ribadu had acerbically castigated the PDP for so long that many would have heart attack at the news of his defection to the same party he has referred to as party of rogues and corrupt individuals.

His recent is however not surprising to close observers of Ribadu, who have seen him on several occasions swallowed or denied his words.

In the height of his career as the boss of the EFCC, Ribadu went after corrupt politicians mostly Olusegun Obasanjo’s perceived enemies. Among those was the former governor of Lagos State and current national leader of the All progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Ribadu as anti-corruption boss openly indicted Tinubu on several occasions before Nigerians as being very corrupt. Before the Senate on September 27, 2006, Ribadu described Bola Tinubu as a very corrupt man, whose corruption has international dimension. Also while speaking to correspondents at the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos February 17, 2007, Ribadu was reported to have said, “Tinubu and the rest (Tinubu, Ibrahim Shekarau, and Orji Kalu) should consider themselves very lucky. . .they ought to have been where Dariye, Fayose, and Alemieyeseigha are today. They cannot escape. It is a matter of time. They have the protection of the law. They enjoy immunity. We are after them because they still want to rule us again. The constitution is against indicted people. After their tenure, they will be prosecuted. They remain indicted and are not fit to hold public positions.”

In 2011 while contesting for the presidential position under the platform of ACN, Ribadu was questioned on why he was romancing and accepting funds from corrupt politicians such as Bola Tinubu who he ones described as the among the corrupt individuals in Nigeria. He promptly denied ever making such comments.  

Although the self righteous Ribadu like to spread the unfounded myth of his prowess in checkmating corruption while in office, emerging facts after he left office indicate that Ribadu had not been very effective at checkmating corruption in the country as is widely believed. While he made some success with checkmating Advance Fee Fraud, Ribadu’s only biggest political conviction was that of Tafa Balogun, the former Inspector General of Police. Even with this case, he was only able to secure a six months conviction and bulk of the corrupt proceeds were left untouched. This is more or less a slap on the hand, which had no sting of deterrent to it whatsoever. Ribadu tarnished the image of the EFCC as an independent and impartial anti corruption unit, when he went after only perceived political opponents of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who appointed him. The EFCC disqualification list which attempted to bar about 54 political enemies of Obasanjo from contesting the 2007 election is a classical example of the selective and intimidating stance of EFFC under Ribadu. While Ribadu ferociously went after perceived Obasanjo’s enemies, he was assiduously exonerating the friends and allies of Obasanjo. An example at hand was the case of Bode George, who after being exonerated by the Ribadu, was later convicted and jailed for two years for corrupt practices while he (Bode George) headed the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) board. Ribadu had told a Nigerian Magazine (The News) that George was not complicit with rot and corrupt practices that rocked the NPA, as according to him “Olabode George was never an executive officer of NPA. He was a part time chairman. It is the executive Managing Director who runs the place; it was the MD’s name that appeared in all the contract papers of NPA. Olabode George was a part-time chairman whose name was never on any contract paper.”